Return of the Time Eaten
by Mygrane
Summary: Sonic believes he that knows who he is, and who his friends are, but he and everyone else on Mobius have forgotten the names of his brother, his sister, and several of his other old acquaintances. An impossible-seeming phenomenon strikes at everything the blue blur knows to be true as those once-forgotten friends return. Concept spanning Underground, Satam, Aosth, X, and the games.
1. It Begins where it Ends

Well, hello there, everyone. This here is my first story, and I hope you enjoy. I believe that I am a bit overly descriptive, but bear with me. It will be fixed around... chapter 3, I believe.

_Time And Space Behavioral Research -Professor Gerald Robotnik's Personal Log -Entry #1935_

_The aspects of time and space that my researchers have discovered here upon the Space Colony ARK are indeed both worrying and incredibly useful to our research. While I will admit that a small amount of outside help was required to finally get it right, we have come up with a proper theory for as to how the universe functions, and although we cannot be certain as to whether or not everything in this theory is true, we are almost certain that we have accurate readings regarding several behaviors of the temporal flow._

_While I certainly haven't enough leisure time on my hands to record every last detail, I would like to reiterate within these notes my concern towards some of the once unknown properties of the Chaos Emeralds. Signs point to these Miracle Gems -as the Soleannans enjoy calling them- being capable of much more than simply distorting time and space around themselves. It may not be a fact set in stone, but we scientists of the ARK have reason to believe that the Emeralds are capable of not only shifting but erasing living people and objects from reality._

_When I say 'erased from reality', I suppose that I should be clear in saying that I do not mean that the Emeralds are capable of simply disintegrating a person or thing on the spot, but instead the gemstones can actually change the world until it is as if the person or thing in question had never even existed. Through subjective testing in our experimental facilities, we have found _this_ to be true: in only an instant, there is nobody who can remember any involved subjects from the test, and all existing files of that subject, electronic or otherwise, are fully erased from everything. There is very little proof that a subject had ever been within our testing chambers, majorly just several confirmed sightings and reports of displaced air. The subjects themselves, however, seem to have been basically evicted from the time-line._

_I myself find such a phenomenon to be nothing short of horrifying. Such a thing implies that anything could change and be drastically altered within a millisecond, or that an innocent person could be torn from existence and all of the people closest to that person-whether it be friends or family- would be none the wiser. I'm concerned so very much by this...What if my dearest granddaughter is someday abducted by the universe itself? What if I can't even so much as remember her? This theory easily warrants immediate further study, for the sake of anyone who has been or will ever be unfortunate enough to be 'eaten by time'..._

* * *

_Outer Space; Above the planet Mobius…_

For the sake of CHILI DOGS! Why does it always have to end up in OUTER _FREAKING_ SPACE!?

If Sonic had to list all the places that he truly disliked, space would be No. 2 on that list. The No. 1 spot on that list would probably always be the middle of the ocean, but space was indeed a close second.

One might suppose that space was Sonic's _least_ favorite place for everything to 'end' because it was interminably dark. Possibly, it was the freezing cold. Or perhaps it was the fact that it was an easy place to die in unless he had the Chaos Emeralds with him. Mostly, though was that the worst things seem to happen to him when space is involved, like going there is just plain bad luck.

Despite his growing annoyance at his current location, Sonic was wearing a smile on his face, his trademark cocky grin, not prepared to show his enemy any sign of weakness. His attitude shone out brighter than the golden glow that surrounded him, and was more infectious than his cardinal red eyes were piercing. Or it would have been, had anyone other than himself been there to infect. Well, the Doctor was there, but he was very much immune to the presence of such an awesome attitude.

Thinking back, Sonic felt he had quite a lot of right to wear that grin just then. He had, after all, found next to no problem getting up to that point. His latest adventure had been comprised of himself hopping from island to island, collecting the Chaos Emeralds, with next to no interference from Dr. Eggman. The doctor had been so incredibly busy trying to conquer a multitude of major islands all at once that Sonic had been able to get all of the Emeralds about as quickly as he could run, and he was storming old Ivo's main base by the end of the week.

It actually took Sonic two and a half days before he had reached the main fortress of his nemesis, all seven Emeralds in hand. Eggman was waiting for him, laughing his evil egghead right off its flabby shoulders, certain that he was in the perfect position to end his adversary. It was then that Sonic decided to use the Emeralds, breaking through Eggman's defenses and nearly catching him. The doctor retaliated by quickly launching a massive new machination, the first of his E-1000000 series. He flew the thing via rocket propelled feet, straight into the Blue Blur's least favorite battleground. Albeit reluctant, Sonic accepted the challenge.

So there he was floating in the confines of zero gravity, sizing up his gargantuan opponent. In appearance, it seemed to be an absolutely massive version of Eggman's old robot, E-102 Gamma, with a confident Dr. Eggman piloting it from behind a wide energy-shielded glass screen that replaced its eyes.

"Well, well, well, Sonic!" began the Doctor, "It's nice of you to finally join me up here. Such a beautiful view, don't you think?" He motioned to planet Mobius below, staring at it the same way that a bank robber would stare at a bar of gold.

"Absolutely stunning." Sonic replied briskly, not daring to remove his eyes from Eggman's robot. Recognizing the design, he took it as an invitation to get on the doc's nerves. "I see you have a 'new' 'bot on your hands...hah... Are you so fresh out of ideas that you have to take something from six years ago and just make it bigger?"

"Five years ago." Eggman corrected, pushing his glasses up his nose. His own smile began to falter. "And it isn't any of your business as to what I kill you with, my miniscule mutated mammal menace."

"Wow. Your terrible alliteration skills are doing more to kill me than your robot ever could. Can I just say that I'm impressed?"

Eggman banged a gloved fist on his control panel and growled, frustration beginning to worm its way into his powerful brain. "I've already had enough of you, and you haven't even made a wisecrack about my hairline yet! Never mind! My Titan Gamma Unit will crush you where you stand!"

"That sounds great, Baldy McNosehair, except, you know…I'm flying, not standing," Sonic shrugged. "Honestly, I thought you had an IQ of 300…"

"You dare question my genius? No rodent, blue or yellow, will besmirch the great name of the Eggman Empire! You will pay DEARLY!"

"Hedgehogs are mammals, doc. You know, I bet you cheated on that IQ test."

Finally losing what little cool he had, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik yelled a primal yell and put his machine into a standard combat stance. The aforementioned rocket boosters on its feet flared, and it whirred and hummed as projectiles were loaded into its arms and energy flowed through its systems.

"I'll teach to doubt my intellect, you insolent pest," Eggman sneered as he approached. "The Titan Gamma Unit was hand-crafted to kill you!"

"You made that giant amusement park with duct tape. I'm not afraid of any 'hand-crafted' 'bot that you come up with," Sonic replied as the robot came unnervingly close.

It may have been a bit ironic, but Sonic was relieved by this turn events. For a minute there, he had thought that this adventure might've been too easy. He flew forward, striking for the robot's screen from which it was being piloted. Eggman, expecting this, lurched backwards with propulsion from the rocket boosters, preventing Sonic from closing the gap immediately.

The arms locked on target at the command of the doctor. The golden hedgehog soon found himself spiraling around a multitude of red and orange plasma spheres until he found his target and hit home, damaging the protective energy screen.

This deadly dance of high-powered collisions continued on for quite a while, the robot having a considerably larger amount of damage resistance than Sonic was expecting. Eggman used several more tricky defensive measures, ranging from missiles to confusing arrays of violet energy pulses to screaming his ever annoying battle cries. By the time that the hedgehog began to feel the energy of the Emeralds waning, his foe was still standing. The robot's energy was clearly beginning to drain as well, having warded off his many attacks, but it was a closer fight than was normal for the ever powerful Super Sonic.

As for Eggman, he must have decided that his robot was on its last legs. As the battle began to conclude, he became increasingly desperate. As Sonic bounced away from his screen once again, he twisted the titanic automaton around, cranked its rocket shoes' power up to maximum boost, and put as much distance between himself and Sonic as possible.

"Sonic! _Prepare yourself!_" He addressed his shining adversary, mashing an intricate sequence of buttons, rerouting the power from the boots and any other spare system he could find over to his trump card. A trump card he had installed with a great deal of pure, unbridled hope, such that it would finally let him win.

Energy built in Gigas Gamma's left arm. Super Sonic zoomed forward and noted this, the Doctor now having earned his full attention. The arm came forward, aiming directly at Sonic, and he veered off to the side, dodging, though the shot didn't actually come. Looking ahead, the hero of Mobius saw that he had made it about to his target.

A sphere of energy coagulated upon the palm of the mechanism, and the metal around its arm expanded outwards. The cannon was prepared for fire (finally, sheesh) and all the Eggman required was to aim, fire, and finally relish his victory.

Eggman took aim, and Super Sonic dodged. The aim was readjusted, but another quick movement left nothing in the Doctor's sights. This continued until Super Sonic was simply to close for Eggman to get an accurate lock-on-target. Sonic saw the end in sight, as did the red-clad, rotund, and relatively panicked Doctor Eggman.

Eggman found that couldn't hit the Hedgehog. He knew had a laser beam with power near equal to that of his grandfather's ever powerful Eclipse Cannon and he believed that he was going to have to sit there and watch it be useless to his cause, as Sonic took him out of the picture once again. The thought was, to him, absolutely… positively… indisputably… unacceptable. The cannon was there. The Eggman was losing his head. The golden Blur wasn't going to _let_ Eggman shoot him. There was only one other target… and that was planet Mobius below.

The laser burst out of the arm with force even old Robotnik wasn't prepared for. The resultant laser blast was indeed so powerful that it broke apart the entire structure from which the laser was fired; a potent explosion that saved Super Sonic the trouble of hauling the machine out of the sky. Without any power, it began to fall to Mobius after the laser, with Eggman screaming and struggling to reach his Egg-O-Matic for an escape.

Sonic was shocked. It was incredibly out-of-the-ordinary for Eggman to do something like firing such a fatal laser at the planet. He forgot about the crumbling Gigas Gamma as it reentered gravity, passing by it as he started putting all his power into catching up with and intercepting that laser fire. And he did indeed catch up to the laser. And he did indeed intercept the laser. Unfortunately, the only thing he had to intercept the massive laser with was his body and face areas, but he was saving lives, so I'm certain we can let that one slide.

As he collided with the beam—the beam which Eggman had believed would flat-out kill him in his super form—he felt the chaotic power of the Chaos Emeralds give out—more than give out—Shatter. In fact, they shattered into tiny pieces upon impact.

'This is it…' Sonic thought as the shot was absorbed into his chest. 'I'm going to die.' His life flashed before his eyes, and he noticed—as this happened—that the life flashing before him was full of faces he didn't quite remember. Blurs ran through his vision in a variety of colors. Green could be seen, as could gray, pink, a shade brown or two, maybe. It was strange… but it didn't matter all that much to Sonic. The last image he saw was a sharp image of his own twin–tailed brother, mourning his headstone.

Despite this Omen of Death, our hero was not simply killed off by the laser. He was actually completely unscathed, though back to his previous blue self—and falling towards the planet at Mach 7. Though miraculous his survival may have been, perhaps the most impressive part of the collision was the fact that the almighty Chaos Emeralds did not share the same fate. Each Emerald had broken apart into miniscule Shards, with each Chaos Emerald Shard either swirling around Sonic the Hedgehog or scattering itself to the far reaches of the planet below.

Sonic was alive. But this moment marked a major turn of events in his life. Or perhaps it should be referred to as a return of events from his lives? (Heheheh… I'm terrible.)

* * *

_Emerald Town; First Region of The United Federation…_

Emerald Town was an interesting little city to live in. It was a relatively small town off the edge of the Central City, founded upon the Emerald Hill Zone, bordered by the Emerald Coast and most importantly, the closest thing that Sonic the Hedgehog had to a stable home. Since Sonic went here most often between his worldly travels, it would only make sense that the small town would suddenly become very popular, housing the hero of the world and all. This meant the place was also excellent in terms of economics.

A place of ravishing beauty; that's how most people would describe Emerald Town. It had fantastic beaches, awe-filled views, and locals who really knew how to treat guests. Looking at it, someone would think there was nothing bad to be said about Emerald Town at all. That it was some lavish little utopia sitting around being pretty. One certain young fox might have to disagree on that account, but that is a story for another time.

Tails was alone in him and Sonic's house in Emerald Town, currently sitting on the living room couch and conjuring up some new software scripts for his _Miles Electric Handheld Computer _TM. The young mutant fox had spent the day trying to perfect his design on his invention in order to make it more simple and user-friendly. Supposedly, he could patent the design and sell it for commercial use. He still had a long way to go, more GUIs to program, and more basic features to install, but he felt that doing so would be well worth it.

As Tails was working on his machine, he began to wonder about Sonic between the lines of code. He had been gone for a bit, and Tails figured that his adventure should be over soon. Sonic normally checked in on Tails when he was on an adventure. It was admittedly pretty strange to Tails. He soon became antsy during the middle of a particularly long bit of code, and soon he was worrying more and more about Sonic.

Of course, he couldn't help but worry about his older brother. Sonic was, as far as Tails knew, actively storming Eggman's base at that very moment. While he could contact Sonic with his little handheld, doing so might interrupt Sonic in the middle of a major boss fight—which would definitely _not_ improve Sonic's chances of returning to Emerald Town unscathed.

"Maybe I should just calm down." Tails said aloud, as stress began to set in (talking to himself was a nervous habit that Tails had developed in his time before he had met Sonic). "I'll just—I don't know—get a soda from the fridge and watch some T.V. for once; Yeah, just like a normal kid would do when they're home alone."

Once Tails had selected a bottle of the ever-delectable Chaos Cola (Mint Blast flavor) from the large refrigerator in the kitchen, he stretched out on the couch again and popped a piece of peppermint from the nearby coffee table into his mouth. He lolled his head on the couch arm, snagged the remote, and flicked on the 70' hanging plasma screen that Sonic had purchased a few months back. "Now, what can I watch? Maybe there's a good sci-fi channel on somewhere…"

Tails clicked through several channels, but could only find a few repeats of the Chao in Space movies—which he already watched several times—and a few shows that made way too many scientific errors for him to stomach. There were also one or two shows that Cream had told him about, but he doubted that he would have any interest in what she liked. Eventually, Tails' search landed on the SNN news network, due to total lack of anything that actually entertained him.

The screen immediately displayed the major news station from Central City, showing a fiery red female jackal Mobian. She wore a short green formal skirt, had her hair cut in a lengthy bob, and held a microphone out in front of her as she gave out the day's field report direct from Westside Island's Casino Night Zone."—you, Alex. Today we have reports of a very peculiar situation considering international villain Doctor Eggman and his most recent evil scheme."

'Ah, finally.' Tails thought. If Eggman had been found, then Sonic was likely to be included in the report as well. The jackal woman continued to speak to the camera.

"The Doctor was found going the usual rounds with the ever heroic Sonic the Hedgehog, who managed to stop him from spreading his influence across the entire Southern Island Archipelago. The doctor's robots had ravaged the entire expanse of Westside, South, and Christmas Islands."

Beginning with Christmas Island, Sonic the Hedgehog's supposed birthplace, Eggman employed several enslavement programs to capture and control the populace." The jackal motioned to a relatively pitiful looking group of people, stuck in itchy Eggman Empire labor outfits, who were still awaiting support from the military organizations of the United Federation. "Sonic was quick to react and each island was liberated in about the same amount of time that it was conquered. However support to help cover stolen possessions and destroyed houses would be appreciated."

Eyewitnesses also report that Sonic had a final encounter with Eggman on the smaller Carnival Island, where he had set up his main base of operations. Sightings of Super Sonic and a very colossal machine have also been noted. This was confirmed when both the robot and an unconscious Sonic the Hedgehog crashed with violent force on opposite sides of Emerald Town, north of the Archipelago." The screen displayed a crowd of Emerald Townsfolk surrounding Sonic, who was lying in a crater in the center of a four-way intersection, whilst waiting on an ambulance.

"AHH! When I said I wanted to know where Sonic was, I didn't mean I wanted him to turn up unconscious!"

It wasn't long until Tails had gotten to the intersection where his best friend was lying still. Thankfully, he managed to out-speed any random ambulatory services with the speed training Sonic had given him. Tails quickly flew over the crowed, much to their surprise, and hovered down to the crater where Sonic still lay. He was actually a bit miffed that none of the onlookers had attempted to move his friend from the impact site, but that was about all you could expect from people living in Emerald Hill Zone. They were ironically inhospitable and unhelpful compared to their hometown.

The golden-furred kit kneeled down to Sonic and checked his pulse, as well as any cuts, bruises, or anything else that could be particularly life-threatening. When Tails' panic was curbed by a healthy heartbeat and no signs of concussion or contusion, Sonic was turned onto his side in such a way that he could properly get rest. Tails thought this was best, because Sonic had managed to look exhausted in the middle of his sleep, and clearly needed to have a lie-down to get his energy back.

Tails turned back to address the crowd, seeing that they were all still standing there curiously. "Uh, It's OK, everybody. I'm pretty sure that Sonic should be Ok, and I'll just take him back to my house and uh… let him catch his breath, ok? Ok. See ya." He turned back around to wipe some nervous sweat off of his brow. Big crowds really weren't his thing.

As the crowd dispersed, Tails noticed all the tiny green Shards surrounding his brother. 'Strange' he thought to himself. 'Who would go and leave a few small gemstones sitting with Sonic like this? Maybe they thought he was dead or something?' Strange as it was, he figured that if a large crowd had left these things with Sonic, they should stay with Sonic.

'Actually, looking at it… the gems kind of look like tiny pieces of a…' He picked up one of the small fractured shards, and felt that unforgettably familiar sting that could only be a Chaos Emerald. But wasn't it impossible to break a Chaos Emerald? It was, unless it was a fake. Such a thing warranted being studied, and was too powerful to leave out in the open anyways, so Tails wasted no time in gathering together as many shards as he could find, then slowly up picked his elder brother and took him home.

* * *

_A Blackened Limbo; ? ? ?_

Sonia ran across a world of eternal blackness. There was nothing around her, as far as she could see. Nothing aside from the black horizon made of swirling dark clouds, and a floor of the same composition. A vast expanse was all around the pink hedgehog; no end in sight.

'How long have I been running?' She thought worriedly to herself. 'I can't tell. I haven't run out of breath, or even needed to take a break of any kind. What's wrong with this place?' For the first time, she felt the need to stop running. It simply seemed pointless to continue.

She adjusted the shining golden buckle above her skirt, loosened her long purple gloves, and sat down to rest. For the first time in so long, she seriously considered the idea that she may ever escape the horrid place she was in. It was nothing but black… just shadows, nothing else. Honestly, what had she done to deserve this?

It had been so long since she had actually seen sunlight. Years had passed—she could tell—but you wouldn't know by looking at her. Even if someone were to have known her back in the real world, she'd look no different to that person now than she would have back then. There was no time in this place. Sonia hadn't even aged.

"Sonia?" The young girl looked up in alarm. That sounded like Manic. But he couldn't possibly be here, could he?

Contrary to what Sonia thought, Manic was there. From far away, Sonia thought he looked like a dark silhouette, forming out of the darkness. But his green quills came into full view as he got closer, and Sonia could see her brother standing there in the flesh; the same age as he had been back in the day. Sonia felt as though she had spent years running without seeing anyone. Now, her younger twin brother Manic had found her.

"SONIA!" he cried when he confirmed that it was in fact his sister. He ran across the blackened ground and locked his sibling into a tight hug. "I've been looking all over for you! Are you okay?"

"I'm Fine, Manic," Sonia nearly cried as she said this. "It's so nice to finally see you again. How long has it been?

"Not sure… I've just been running as fast as I can through this place, trying to find you and Sonic." The heartfelt embrace between bro and sis kept on going as they spoke with each other.

"That's what I was doing, too. It looks like we finally got together. Have you heard or seen anything about Sonic? With his help, we could try to get out of here."

Manic shook his head with a sad 'no'. "Hate to say it, but I haven't seen heads or tails of the blue guy. And this place goes on forever, so he won't get anywhere by running…Except for _away from us_, that is."

"…Great…" Sonia sighed. "Well, if there's no chance of us finding him, then it might be better for us to just try to escape. There _has_ to be some way to get out of this place, right?"

"None that I know of, that's for sure." Manic took out a pair of drumsticks from his fanny pack and twirled them around his fingertips.

"You can't remember anything at all?"

"I'm not the one with the photographic memory. You got anything to share?"

"Nothing," Sonia looked distraught. "Actually, this place is nothing but nothing."

"Not a thing?" The drumsticks halted. "No riddles to solve? No people to save? No music to play, or robots to smash up?"

"We could play music, if Sonic were here." Sonia held up a piano-shaped silver medallion from around her neck. It matched a drum kit medallion that Manic wore.

"Um, Sonia…"

"Honestly, if our medallions were working, we could be out of here. But they're not."

"So-o-nia…"

"It's ridiculous, really… Where _is_ Sonic when you need him?"

"SONIA! LOOK BEHIND YOU!"

Sonia spun around at Manic's request, seeing yet another silhouette behind her. Her first thought was that Sonic had turned up, and now stood behind her. Not quite…

Sonic was not standing behind her, but there _was _a hedgehog standing a few feet away; close enough to be seen, but so far that he was nothing but a pitch black silhouette in the dark realm. The unknown one held himself with arms outstretched, as if he were crucified, and uttered an unsettling chuckle. Then he disappeared in some odd dark smoke.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT?" A shiver ran down Sonia's spines as she spun around to face her brother. Manic gasped and looked at her with an expression of fear, pointing his index finger to Sonia's immediate right.

"…Probably him…"

Sonia followed her brother's finger, and found that the figure that had disappeared was now less than a foot away from her, towering over her in full view. It was a tall hedgehog with fur as dark as the rest of the black realm, aside from a few gray-blue stripes adorning his arms and quills. He towered a near full Mobian head in height over Sonia, standing in his same surreal crucified position. He looked down at Sonia with snakelike green eyes and smiled; an impressive feat considering that he didn't even have a mouth. Even so, the muzzle moved as if he had one when he finally spoke in a low, malevolent voice.

"Greetings, little girl…"

Needless to say, Sonia screamed so loud that Manic believed his ears had been severed from his head.

"My…" The black newcomer continued. "That was quite a reception."

"WHO ARE YOU?!" Sonia screamed as she stumbled back in fear. She heard evil resound in the black one's voice as he laughed and then replied with eerie glee.

"Darkness Incarnate… The Devil in the Flesh… A Hedgehog with a Starring Role in the Apocalypse… But if you must have a name, my 'friends' refer to me as Mephiles; Mephiles the Dark. Now then, would you like to give me your names? It the only… _polite _thing for you to do."

"You can call me Manic…and my sister's name is Sonia," The green hedgehog answered first. He rushed to Sonia's side without taking his eyes off of this 'Mephiles' character. Though, looking at the guy, he figured Mephiles should know what this black place was. "Now what's going on here, Mephiles? What is this place?"

"Ah, twins. How delightful," Manic swore he saw Mephiles lick his lips, but then remembered that the black hedgehog didn't _have_ any lips. "You really don't know where we are? What a shame for you."

Allow me to explain. We are trapped within a vile dimensional prison between time and space, designed to hold people like ourselves who no longer have a place in Mobius' timeline. I, personally, was erased from history by a certain trio of glowing pests and some random princess, and was sent here without my precious little brother to comfort me. How horrible is that?"

Manic eased up. If this creepy dude cared about his own brother, he couldn't be all that bad. Family was important, after all; Even if you call yourself Darkness Incarnate…

"Absolutely horrible," Manic said. "We both know what it's like to have someone you care about… taken away from you. Right, Sonia?"

"Lady Windermere…" Sonia reminisced, but then she realized one little thing.

"Wait one second," the female hedgehog said. "If this is an 'interdimensional prison,' then what are we doing here?"

"Not a clue… You probably tampered with the rules of time and space somehow." Mephiles gave some nonexistent smirk to both younger hedgehogs. "Either way, I would expect that we are going to be released soon."

"How'd you figure that out, dude?" Manic asked in a serious tone.

"Well, as I discovered by watching the two of you reunite…" Both smaller hedgehogs have a visible shudder. He had seen that? Mephiles continued.

"This is the first time any of us inmates of time have been able to contact one another within this realm. As such, I find it reasonable that some event of importance should occur… And what is more important than our own freedom?"

Suddenly, just as Mephiles finished speaking, the whole dark place gave a grand, rumbling groan, and a bright flash of lightning burst across the infinite shadowy horizon.

The black dimension cracked open. It was only slight at first, then prominent as shining emerald green cracks of bright energy formed a spider web across the abyssal horizon. A great chaotic wind whipped across Mephiles and his fellow inmates, throwing all of their quills (particularly Sonia's) into dismay. The cracks slowly reached through with a scream, and neither hedgehog nor demon spoke a word, until everything but them was made a brilliant green.

Mephiles watched Sonia and Manic fall as the floor beneath their feet broke apart. He himself remained floating where he had once stood. Both hedgehog siblings flew directly into the newly formed all-consuming wall of green. Upon contact with it, they disappeared, leaving Mephiles there alone.

"Oh, my—what impeccably ironic timing." said Mephiles. "And the best part of all this is that I heard those two pathetic mortal creatures say that they knew Sonic… They will lead me straight to him, and soon my vengeance shall be more than complete…" Then he began to laugh vigorously, as he propelled himself into the wall with his vile black powers, disappearing in the same fashion as Manic and Sonia had.

* * *

Thus ends chapter one, and births a large amount of confusion (Possibly). I don't know... i'm not sure if the storyline makes sense outside of my head. :P

Do please go ahead and give me your (constructive) feedback, it will help me quite a bit.


	2. Underground Oddities

Aah, yes; we have arrived at the second chapter of "RotTM" (that is a god-forsaken terrible acronym). I typed this story and released it almost immediately after the first, so there will be, very likely, no mistakes fixed from my writing style. 10,000 words in two chapters... Hmm. I'm a blabbermouth, aren't I?

* * *

_Inter-dimensional Storage and Other Chaos Concepts -Gerald Robotnik's Personal Log -Entry #1938_

_It was a joyous occasion on the ARK today as we finally managed to recover Dr. Burneu from the confines of the newly conned "Black Limbo." It took the full force of a shot from the prototype Eclipse Cannon, but we were able to release him and any other objects we had tossed out of reality by breaking the Chaos Emerald within which we had confined them. We will have to prolong testing in regards to this Chaos Emerald Pocket, as it is near impossible to actually secure data on it, given it's nature._

_I honestly had no idea that anyone had actually volunteered to travel into the Chaos. Burneu was always so very hot-headed, I suppose... Either way, we were all surprised when a man that none of us could recall the name of materialized in front of us, and dressed in official ARK scientist garb as well. The Black Limbo apparently has some form of delay when it comes to remembering the subjects to have entered it._

_Regardless of his triumphant return, none of the official files for Dr. Burneu have been recovered-including his employee files- and he will have to be deported to the planet below as an intruder. He will have no birth certificate, no identity, no resume, and possibly no bank assets. One can only imagine what kind of life a man as intelligent as he will have to turn to..._

_To address a somewhat more important manner, the Chaos Emerald seems to have been perfectly repaired through the use of an electrical current. This is very fortunate, as now its properties and powers will not be lost to us. Considering how Bruneu described the Limbo as an endless dark expanse, we are even more so lucky. With enough studies towards the Chaos energies, we may be able to use the Black Limbo as a sort of infinite universal storage system. Research will have to be postponed due to spreading paranoia towards this field of study, but I look forward to to what the future holds. In the meantime, I must make certain that Project: Shadow is stable._

_Sonic & Tails House; Emerald Town_

When Sonic woke up, he felt incredibly happy.

It wasn't a side effect from the fall from space, mind you, nor was it a result of his perpetually optimistic attitude. If one were to know Sonic, he or she'd have known easily that the only thing that could make him grin like he was now-the only thing that could make him so insanely happy like he was now… could be nothing but a chili dog.

Sonic the Hedgehog didn't normally sleep for long periods of time, and it was even rarer for him to wake up to a plate of piping hot chili dogs; twelve of them, in fact. He poked the plate and pinched himself to make sure this wasn't some sort of sick joke his mind was playing on him, the proceed to stuff three of the dogs right upside his muzzle before he noticed exactly where he was.

He was in the large concrete and metal research chamber that Tails referred to as his workshop (Sonic referred to it as 'the big basement where Tails keeps all of his stuff'), lying on a small wooden bench that had been re-purposed into a small bed for him. The plate of chili dogs was on an old wooden stool that was currently posing as a table. The set up was built next to one of Tails' old, clunky-looking Experimental Virtual Reality Devices (Patent Pending). When Sonic's chili dog high began to wind down, he noticed that he had a lot of light aches and pains across his head and body area, which were heavily bandaged.

"Oh, good; you're awake!" someone called. "I was hoping you would be fine. Last time you fell from space, you turned into a werehog." Tails himself was actually watching Sonic from the other end of the lab. He was sitting in a chair, trying to scan the energy signatures of the green Chaos Emerald Shards. "You really like falling from space, don't you, Sonic? You can't fly, you know…" He gave a smirk he had seen Sonic give a thousand times. He figured that he had right to, as his birthday was just last month and he was now officially a preteen at the age of twelve.

Sonic looked at his brother, not really feeling in the mood to think of a comeback, much as he wanted to. His head was still swimming a bit, and he had a mouth full of chili dogs. Sonic started talking while he was still cramming two of the remaining chili dogs into his mouth. "What happened, Tails? How am I still alive? I thought I was a goner there for a second."

"You thought you were a 'goner'? That's weird; you've fallen from space, like, twice before… what was different about this time? Did Eggman actually hit you or something?" Tails thought the idea was ridiculous.

"Nah. Egg-bloater could never hit me. I…" Sonic rubbed his head. "Kinda flew into one of his lasers on purpose… Heh heh heh heh."

Tails blinked. "Why in the world would you do that?" he deadpanned. Sonic was still as much of a mystery as ever to Tails, even though he knew the Blue Blur better than anyone else.

"He shot the planet with yet another giant cannon. And this time I flew into it and stopped it from hitting the planet, simple as that."

"Wow, you really are crazy. Wait, so how did the robot explode?"

"It blew up from an overload when Eggman shot it. _Say_, how did you know it blew up?"

"Saw it on the news. It fell on the other side of Emerald Town and there are some construction people fixing the damage…"

"Oh, sheesh. Nobody got hit?"

"Nah, Everything was fine." Tails got out of his chair, motioning to the Emerald Shards. "Except for one little thing, that is. Can you see these things here, Sonic? Because according to what I've found, we might just have a big problem on our hands…"

"Oh, it couldn't be that terrible." Sonic waved his hand in bored dismissal. "We've stopped the apocalypse from happening like a hundred times, bro. Unless you just gave me the last set of chili dogs on the planet, I don't think we really have a problem."

Tails pulled up some files on his lab's main monitor, next to the Emerald Shard container. "Well, we may have stopped the world from burning more than once, but a lot of those times, you had to use the Chaos Emeralds, right?"

"Well, yeah… The Time Eater, Dark Gaia, the BioLizard, Chaos, and that's just naming a few. Why?"

"Just saying, you'd better hope we don't need them for a while. Because I found these little gemstones all around you on the pavement." Tails tapped the container gently, as if it might detonate. Inside it, the Chaos Emerald Shards swirled around in a random pattern. Tails brought up a file showing confirmation of proper Chaos frequency. "I've been taking a look at these shards with this equipment, and Sonic… those things in there are broken pieces of a Chaos Emerald."

"What the… that's… but the real Chaos Emeralds aren't supposed to break." Sonic's brow furrowed as he took a closer look. "The fake ones, maybe, but not the real ones…"

"Well, it's true. The Emeralds seem to have been broken apart from the impact of the laser hitting your super form. You ended up being fine, but the Emeralds got broken apart and scattered everywhere."

"All seven of them?! That's ridiculous!"

"Yeah. For some reason, the green pieces fell with you while the others flew off in random directions." Tails again typed at the computer, this time showing a map depicting Sonic's fall and projecting possible trajectories of the Emerald Shards.

"Maybe this one likes me." Sonic smiled. "It'd make sense, considering how cool I am. One of these things would be bound to fall in love with me."

"I like how you go from panicking to a big head in four seconds flat." Tails replied flatly. "I mean, It's not like that thing is alive or anything."

"You never know, Tails. You never know. So, should I go ahead and follow this map? Find out where the other Emeralds are?" Sonic pointed to the map, looking for a route to take.

"Yeah, you can do that. But before you go, I think I found a way to put the Chaos Emeralds together. Want to help me test it out?"

"Sure. What do I need to do?"

"Ok. The device I've set up has to get a lot more energy before we can use it. Can you get on the treadmill?"

"Oh, HECK NO." Sonic's aura of egotism was replaced by a sense of dread." Not the treadmill. You know that we both hate the treadmill, Tails. And I am already injured." The blue hero pointed to his bandages.

"_Please_? I mean, it's the only way were going to get the Emeralds back into one piece. And if you don't do it once now and get me some data, you'll definitely have to do it seven times after you get them all."

"Well, looks like logic wins again." Sonic sighed. "All right, I'll do it. But, if I end up in that freaky Emerald Hill Hospital place again, I'm paying off the medical bills by pawning off your airplanes."

Tails ignored the empty threat and walked to the farthest corner of his laboratory, heading for a large clunky machine he had created several years earlier, before Sonic had met Amy, if he remembered correctly. The device was a massive brass and steel treadmill, one with straps and harnesses strong enough to keep one hyper-speed hedgehog in place whilst he sped along the belt. The thing was the most "efficient" form of energy production Tails had ever constructed, and all it took to work was the power of one blue speedster and his running shoes.

Sonic got onto the treadmill, which was about seven feet high and warranted the use of a spin jump to reach. He winced as he balanced his way across the wobbly treadmill belt and groaned as he strapped himself into it. Not groaning from pain, but from bad memories. Sonic gave Tails a half-hearted thumbs-up. "Let it rip." He said.

The young kitsune flicked the switch to the treadmill, releasing the locks on it. Sonic slowly began his jog, eventually reaching a good 105 miles per hour on the treadmill, making a clamorous 'whumwhumwhum' as the belt slipped under him. Tails oversaw the energy levels and gave his brother the signal to go faster. As Sonic increased his speed past 300 miles per hour, the first fatal flaw of the machine began to make itself known, with small tendrils of electricity beginning to spark out of the energy conduit and rise towards Sonic's metal buckled shoes.

Tails gave another signal; more energy was needed to restore the Chaos Emerald. Sonic knew that this was where the treadmill became dangerous and he braced himself. Cranking up his speed nearly to the breaking point of the sound barrier, Sonic felt the harness restraining him, actually beginning to burn his chest via friction. The worst part, however, was that god-awful electricity. The lighting that was spitting from this _stupid _treadmill was turning into full-blown lightning strikes. Sonic didn't need to look to see that Tails had ducked around his computer desk to avoid the wayward blasts. The kid was terrified of lightning, and this treadmill's output of electricity made him just as frightened.

There was a resounding ding, and Tails found that enough energy was now stored to blast the Chaos Emerald back into one piece, as was shown on his CPU monitor. He only needed to deactivate the treadmill. The one which, looking back to it was now mercilessly electrocuting Sonic, who was trying to stay conscious to avoid falling onto the high speed belt. Tails closed his eyes and ducked for the 'Deactivate' switch.

And when he got to it, everything went very wrong. The treadmill shook violently as it was given the command to stop, and with its dying shudder, the large, rustic machine spat a final bolt of electricity directly towards the system containing the Chaos Emerald Shards.

And then… all Chaos broke loose.

The container gave a horrid shudder as that final bolt zapped its way through and between the multitudes of broken Chaos Emerald Shards. As a result, the green hue of the gems somehow leaked onto the lightning bolt, which then began to erratically multiply and writhe as if it were the heads of a snarling electrical hydra. With much more force than anything the treadmill could have birthed, an emerald green lightning storm erupted from the container.

The green lightning startled Tails and burst into Sonic, knocking him unconscious and smacking him off of the treadmill and into the far wall. Tails fell into a panicked state, screamed loudly, and with the last of his proper sense, jumped to his brother and pulled Sonic and himself around the far side of the treadmill. Tails continued to scream and whine whilst trying to shake Sonic awake, as if his older brother could fix the situation. The hedgehog snored something about not being able to eat any more chili dogs. Tails yelled back with something like "THISSINOTIME AWNATAKK ABOUT CHILIDOSS DERES LIETNIGN EVERY-WERE! AAAAAH!" Majorly, the sound of this yell was drowned out by a high-pitched, ever increasing whine emanating from the Chaos Shards.

In the end, as the Chaos-born screech shot across the room, and the lightning engulfed all of Tails' machinery, a blinding white light charged within the Chaos Emerald Shards and eventually burst into the room, swallowing it with a resonant ringing noise.

* * *

_Later (Where you expecting a more extravagant transition title?)_

For the second time in a single day, Sonic had been unfortunate enough to wake up with a pounding headache. 'Not really the best way to kick off my break from throwing Eggman out of his flying chair.' Sonic got up and rubbed his plus-sized Mobian skull, praying to the heavens that he didn't have a concussion. His vision swam around in an imperfect circle. What the heck had just happened?

Suddenly, Sonic remembered. There was an explosion, one that came from the Chaos Emerald Shards. Really more like a burst of electricity, but that doesn't make it any less dangerous. In fact, it was worse; what with Tails being afraid of lightning and all...

Tails…

OH, CRAP! TAILS!

Sonic scrambled to his feet as quickly as possible (in his case that would be .00025 seconds). His brother was caught in that lightning storm; what if he had been hurt? Sonic didn't feel much at that point other than the need to protect of his younger brother. Falling from outer space at ten times the speed of sound? Not even half as damaging to Sonic as the thought of losing his brother. They were simply that close; they shared nothing less than an unbreakable bond.

The blue blur's vision was blurred much more so than he had originally anticipated. To him, everything seemed either blurred, distorted, black, or some combination of the three. Where was Tails?! He'd have to call out for his brother. "Tails! Where are you!?"

He scrambled across the floor, unable to stand up. The only goal he had in mind was finding his best friend, although his thoughts did take a detour to curse that blasted treadmill. He crawled on and on, not looking to see where he was. He only needed to see that bright yellow fur, then everything would be okay.

Sonic's hand stopped on something hard. A fox tail, hopefully? No, fox tails aren't hard. It was a shining green gem. He held it up in his hand. Was this the Chaos Emerald? Had it been fixed during the blast?

'Well, at least one good thing came out of all of this.' Sonic thought. But then, just as he clenched the emerald, yet another flash of power filled the room.

The next moment, Sonic found himself face to face not with his foxy little brother, but with a large swirling green and black vortex. It pulsated and churned in a way that only a supernatural chaotic phenomenon could. Sonic backed up in fear and his vision began to clear, just enough to see a pair of hedgehog kids—pink and green—flying heads first out of the portal.

"What the…What's going on here!?" he said aloud as the vortex dissipated in a burst of darkness. The hedgehog twins responded with a groan.

Sonic pulled himself to full height. Where in the world could these two have come from? He thought to himself, 'Rule No. 1 of common sense, Sonic: _Don't trust random strangers who get flung out of freaky evil chaos portals.'_

The hedgehog kids gave a loud groan and bled slightly on the concrete floor of the workshop. Apparently, they had hit their heads very badly upon the hard floor. Sonic sighed, 'Rule No. 1 of being a hero, Sonic: _Help those in need_. Oh, and note to self: Get Tails some carpet for this place.'

He pocketed the chaos emerald, bent down, and helped both hedgehogs up, then brought them over and rested both of their heads on opposite ends of the bench he had just woken up upon. He hoped they didn't mind the chili dog smell. With his eyes finally open and his 'guests' taken care of, Sonic returned his attention to finding Tails.

It wasn't difficult to find the kid. He was cowering in the farthest corner of the lab from the treadmill, curled up in fetal position behind a computer chair. He shivered from fright and was completely scared out of his mind. He was so scared that his fur stood on end, though that may have been leftover electricity.

Sonic went over to Tails and stooped down on one. Fearing the worst, the bigger brother ran his glove through the younger's fur. He was relieved to find that there was very little static electricity of any kind in the kit's fur. So Tails hadn't been struck by lightning; he was simply in shock. Sonic pulled the little genius to his feet and carried him to the main bathroom upstairs. Luckily, they had some leftover stress-relief medication that would assist in bringing Tails back to the waking world.

A great deal of time after, when the drugs' effects had calmed Tails and he had combed his fur down, Sonic and the now-conscious fox went back to the lab, where Sonic 'introduced' his best friend to the still-sleeping strangers. The hero and sidekick found themselves working together to keep watch over both hedgehog intruders. During this time, Tails took advantage of the surrounding lab machinery to see if he could identify their unwanted guests. Sonic now sat within Tails' Virtual Reality Generator, using its combat simulator to keep himself pre-occupied. The Immersion setting was decreased, however, so that Sonic could still converse with Tails and hop out if needed.

"So Tails," he said as he slew a toad-shaped Badnik within the machine. "What have you been able to find out about these guys so far?"

Tails turned his swivel chair around from the computer desk that had cowered behind earlier. "I've found out that you want to know who they are so bad that you can't even wait for the web browser to load up," he joked.

"That's not a fact about them, that's a fact about me." Sonic argued whilst smashing three E-2000 units. "_CAN_ you find out about them, genius?"

"They're a pair of pink and green hedgehog twins about my age with outdated hairstyles and silvery medallions. It'll be impossible," he said sarcastically, moving back around to the computer.

"I'll run a search for people with their description using some custom search tools that I have on this CPU. While that's running, I'll go ahead and take a DNA sample from them and see if I can find a match in GUN's database."

"Sure is convenient that they let you have access to their whole private information database like that." Sonic pointed out. He about said 'nice' instead of 'convenient,' but he remembered that GUN doesn't do 'nice.'

"Rouge gave me access for my birthday last year," Tails replied as he got up to harvest some strands of fur from the unknown hedgehogs. "But it's not like I couldn't get into it if I really wanted to; their firewalls are horrible."

"Good for them the only person you ever hack is Eggman…" he trailed off for a second. "Eggman's computers _are the_ only ones you ever hack into, right?"

"Welllllllllll, there was that one journalist who followed you and Amy to the beach once—"

"—First off, I was dragged there against my will. Second off, I am forever in your debt."

"I'll say," Tails stifled his own laughter and picked some of Manic's fur off. "If that picture ever got leaked…"

"SO! HOW'S THE INTERNET SEARCH GOING?" the blue blur interrupted from the VR chamber.

"Should be finished, let's see," Tails sat down; he saw that the internet had thoroughly been scoured over by his little programs. He inserted the individual hair strands into his own DNA tester that he had built and began to scroll down the list, trying to find a match for his subjects.

"Strange…" he said as he reached the end of list a minute later. What he had found—or rather, had not find—didn't make any sense. Nowhere on the screen was there a single link, picture, or news article that matched his description of the two hedgehog kids. Not one person who'd been brought up by the computer could pass as either of the mysterious hedgehogs.

"Something wrong?" his brother asked worriedly.

"They aren't on here. There isn't anything on the web that describes them whatsoever. Not a name, date of birth, nationality, just nothing! It's like they don't even exist…" The unknown hedgehogs really _were _impossible to find. Tails felt as if he had jinxed himself.

"We know a few people who don't exist on the internet," Sonic pointed out. "Take Blaze, for instance. She's from a whole other dimension. Nobody in our dimension knows she exists except for our friends and Eggman. GUN doesn't have many files on Silver either, because his timeline hasn't happened yet."

"So these guys are from another dimension or time or something," Tails concluded. He gave a disappointed sigh at his machinery's uselessness. "Well, I guess there's not much point to that DNA test, then is there?"

Tails reached out to the DNA tester, ready to shut it off. However, just as his finger reached the button, the screen flashed with a brilliant notice box blaring on the screen.

RESULTS FOUND

One (1) positive match found for Subject One.

One (1) positive match found for Subject Two.

Would you like to view the found matches?

**[Yes] [No]**

The DNA tester had found a match. Tails found this even weirder than the lack of online information; impossible, even. The two hedgehogs couldn't have been matched to each other because neither one was entered in the system. If the internet hadn't found any reports of them, in which case they weren't native to present day Mobius, then _how_ could the DNA device have found a single matching relative of theirs in the GUN database? More importantly, if they had a recorded mother or father, wouldn't they have had at least two relatives in the database?

Curious, Tails clicked on '[YES]' and had to blink several times at the final match. "Sonic…"

"Hold that thought, Tails; I'm fighting a Silver Sonic. Ha! Can you say 'nostalgia rush'?"

"But… Sonic… You really need to see this," the fox prodigy took one final slow blink of confusion. "Right now…"

"Aw, man; Fine!" Sonic carefully took off the Virtual Reality visor and took some long, fast steps towards his lil' bro. "And I was about to beat my high score, too."

"I didn't install a score-keeping system in the combat sim…"

"Whatever! What is it that you want, though?" Sonic asked as he leaned, somewhat excited, over Tails' shoulder.

Tails pointed the computer mouse towards the test results for both pink and green hedgehogs. While the system could only identify them as 'Subject One' and 'Subject Two', it certainly could confirm that both hedgehogs were twins. Their DNA codes were displayed as nearly identical, with some minor discrepancies in terms of gender and fur color. The device also confirmed them to be twelve years of age, slightly younger than Tails.

"Okay, they are twins. We already figured that much." Sonic pointed out.

"Not twins; triplets." Tails said uncomfortably.

"Triplets?"

"Yeah, they have a brother."

"Cool. Who is their brother, then?"

Tails was silent for a second, honestly wishing that he could just skip an awkward revelation that he had only just discovered. He began to sweat a little. Too late, now…

"It's you, Sonic." Tails finally whispered. He scrolled the mouse wheel down and it showed Sonic's very own DNA code displayed in the center of the page beneath the other two. In the place of the subject names lie the words 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and below those words was a DNA map that was very nearly identical to the other hedgehogs' maps, with again minor discrepancies for fur color and also some genes having to do with Sonic's incredible running speed.

"WHAAAAA?!" Sonic stumbled back off of his brother's swivel chair.

"This thing doesn't lie, Sonic," Tails explained a bit sadly. "These two people are apparently directly related to you, by blood. They are your…"—he choked briefly and his ears began to droop—"They are your brother and sister."

"But that doesn't even make any sense! I'm eight years older than them. How can I have two triplet siblings that are eight years younger than me?" Sonic flailed both of his arms through the air in confusion. "There must be some other explanation for this, Tails!"

"I know! I know!" was Tails quick reply, turning back to the computer and losing himself in it. "We just have try and figure more things out. Maybe if I can find the right parts, I can figure out some of the properties of that portal and find out where they came from. Then we might be able to investigate there and find out who these guys are."

"Sounds complicated," Sonic deadpanned sarcastically. "I wish we could just _ask _them who they are. That would be a whole lot easier than doing all this crazy detective work."

"Well, why _don't _you ask us who we are?" Sonia asked him pleasantly.

Sonic spun around one hundred and eighty degrees on his right foot, facing back towards the bench where the two younger hedgehogs had been set down. He found himself just a few feet away from both of them, as they now stood in the center of the room. Sonia was a bit closer to him than Manic, and they both had their arms crossed in a somewhat arrogant fashion.

"Yeah," Manic added tauntingly. "Nothings stopping you, big bro. Go ahead. Ask us who we are."

* * *

_Tsk._ That ending there for this here chapter is something i'm not all too sure about. I just... the shock factor is right for Sonic, but I don't know if Manic and Sonia's teasing him just then makes much sense...

Also the treadmill... I just wanted it in the story. I probably could have written better for the whole "chaos emerald re-combination" bit, but I liked it enough to keep it in.

Either way, thus ends the chapter after the first one. Hopefully, I'll be able to introduce the concepts into the _actual storyline _soon enough. I honestly didn't feel that my ideas made enough sense, so I added in grandpa Eggman's-I MEAN- Gerald Robotnik's Personal Log as an afterthought. I feel that writing those will be fun, as well, and they may even allow me to add some dramatic irony into my tale; which is ironic, considering that my fox OC doesn't even have tail...

Anywho, regardless of my over-descriptiveness and eloquent manner of speaking, I am still a newbie at writing on this site. So, please do review and critique my work as kindly as possible, and do keep in mind that I have not made any progress towards bettering myself between this chapter and the one preceding it.

Until we meet again,  
-MasterMygrane


End file.
